The Purpleheart Posse receiving their Championship Trophy from Minister within the Office of the Prime Minister, Kwame McCoy
The Office of the Prime Minister (OPM) on Monday hosted the first-ever Guyana Media Games, in observance of World Press Freedom Day 2024, and the ‘Purpleheart Posse’ emerged as overall champions thereof.
The Wallaba Knights were overall second-place finishers
Aligning with the theme for this year’s observance of World Press Freedom Day, “A Press for the Planet: Journalism in the face of the Environmental Crisis”, 6 teams competed in Monday’s activities, and each team was named after a wood native to Guyana, namely: Team Bulletwood, Wallaba Knights, Kirikua Titans, Team Greenheart, Purpleheart Posse and Team Jatoba.
The team that won the Championship began the day’s proceedings with a 2-0 victory over Bulletwood in the Futsal final, compliments of goals from team Captain Jemima Holmes and Esan Griffith. Earlier, Team Jatoba defeated Greenheart 3-1, while Bulletwood whipped Wallaba Knights 4-0 to advance to the final.
In the only semifinal of the Futsal competition, Purpleheart Posse mauled Jatoba 4-0, then followed up with top honours in the cricket competition by defeating Wallaba Knights by 4 wickets in the final.
Jemima Holmes and Godfrey Broomes were named the female and male MVPs of the inaugural Media Games
The first match of the cricket competition saw Greenheart posting 54-1 in their 3 overs, while Bulletwood came up short with 52-1 in their 3 overs.
Purpleheart then cruised to their target of 33 in 2.2 overs, after Jatoba posted 32-3 in the first innings.
Wallaba Nights scored 36-1 in their encounter with Kirikua, who replied with 30-2. In the lone semifinal, Purpleheart bowled out Greenheart 18-5, and then cruised to their target unbeaten inside 2 overs to book their spot in the final.
Wallaba Knight batted first in the final, putting up 23-3, while Purpleheart Posse replied with 26-2 to claim victory.
A look at some of the football action featuring Jatoba (orange) and Greenheart
In the novelty and athletics events, the likes of Shemar Gray, Davina Bagot, Godfrey Broomes, Devon Roberts, Subhana Shiwmangal, Emmerson Campbell, Avenash Ramzan, Tevin Divine and Holmes were among the winners.
The mixed 4x50M race saw Team Bulletwood walking away with a victory, while Purpleheart crossed the line second and Jatoba third.
Purpleheart reigned supreme with a total of 106 points after the day’s proceedings, while Wallaba Knights were second with 82 points, and Bulletwood were third with 59 points. Broomes and Holmes were named the most valuable male and female players of the competition.
